


Acrophobia

by MikazukiMunechika305



Category: Saiyuki Gaiden
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-22
Updated: 2017-07-22
Packaged: 2018-12-05 09:53:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11575641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MikazukiMunechika305/pseuds/MikazukiMunechika305
Summary: Kenren tells Tenpou about his acrophobia, and from then on they spend a lot of time talking.





	Acrophobia

“Oh, my,” Tenpou lifts one hand to cover his mouth in a mix of surprise and amusement. “Kenren… by any chance, are you—”

“Shut up!” Kenren’s paleness disappears, instead a slight blush starts creeping up his cheeks. “It’s fine, isn’t it? You said whatever I wanted to tell you about was fine.”

Tenpou lets out an amused chuckle. “Of course it’s fine. I just didn’t expect acrophobia to be what you wanted to tell me about.”

The General sighs heavily. “I’d appreciate it if you kept it a secret from the other guys, too. Don’t want anyone to know about this.”

A mysterious smile lifts the corners of Tenpou’s lips. “If you’d mind sharing a smoke with me, then I suppose I can keep it to myself.”

“You don’t need to bribe me with something like that,” Kenren smirks, takes out a cigarette and then lifts his lighter to light it as well as Tenpou’s.

He drops to the floor, leaning back against Tenpou’s desk, while the Marshal remains sitting on it. Both of them agree on this, at least—moments like this are the times when they savor life the most.

For a while, they’re quiet.

Then, Kenren speaks up, “Say, Tenpou—why…” but he trails off, not exactly knowing why he even spoke up in the first place.

“Why are we like this, you mean?” Tenpou hums amusedly.

“Uhm… nope. Not really.”

“Then… why you were made my General, maybe?”  
Kenren tilts his head back to look up at him thoughtfully. This feels kind of amusing. “Maybe. So, what do you think about it?”

Tenpou looks down to him, a certain shine in his eyes. “I wonder… maybe someone thought we’d work well together.”

“Yeah. Well, do we? Work well together, I mean,” Kenren clarifies this time.

“I think we do. Well, I absolutely didn’t expect you and the others to disobey me when we fought those monsters, but… I somehow think that’s what made us come closer to each other,” the Marshal admits, taking a deep breath.

“Well, yeah. Of course we wouldn’t want our commander to sacrifice himself for the unit,” Kenren shrugs slightly. “I mean, I know you don’t want your soldiers to die, but I think that one guy who died… maybe it was his own fault, not yours—and I sure as hell can’t let the Marshal whose reputation I’ve been told not to ruin die on me, right?”

A chuckle leaves Tenpou’s lips. “If you say so, _Taishou_.”

“’course I say so, _Gensui_.”

“But I get the feeling you didn’t mean this either. So, what was it that you meant, Kenren?”

Kenren exhales the smoke he’s just breathed in. “Don’t know, I forgot.”

“Anyways…” Tenpou tilts his head to the side slowly. “You were told not to ruin my reputation?”

Kenren nods. “Yeah, Goujun did. To be honest, I didn't know why he said that at all. When I first met you, I was more like, ‘...and whose reputation was it again that I'm supposed not to ruin? Surely not this guy's, right?’”

Tenpou laughs, and it sounds very amused and lighthearted now. “How considerate of him. I didn't even think I had a reputation to ruin. You know, that wasn't very long after I was appointed as the Marshal of our unit, so I was still pretty young and reckless.”

Kenren looks up to him again, his brows furrowed. “You're still reckless. But anyways, they call you Heaven’s best military tactician, just so you know.”

Tenpou’s eyes clearly say, ‘I didn't want to know that,’ but he doesn't complain about having heard it. He just sighs and mumbles, “Then I've got to live up to their expectations, huh? Let's get back to work, Kenren.”

It's unusual for Tenpou to suggest this, but Kenren just supposes it's because he now knows about his reputation. “Hey, I don't want you to change, though,” he speaks up quickly when Tenpou gets up and offers his hand to pull him up. “If you've never felt like the best military tactician, I don't want you to feel like it now either.”

A laugh escapes Tenpou’s lips, and Kenren feels a little relieved. “It's fine, _Taishou,_ I'm not going to change,” he chuckles, pats Kenren’s head once and doesn't help him get up after all.

 

“I thought you had acrophobia,” Tenpou says in surprise when Kenren climbs up the tree and sits down on a branch next to him.

“Yeah. Trees are okay, I still feel connected to the ground here… and it's a height I can easily jump,” Kenren explains. “Besides, it doesn't feel nice to sit down there all alone while you're up here all alone.”

“You don't have that problem if it comes to my desk.”

“’cause your desk isn't as high as the tree.”

With that, the topic is done with and Kenren reaches out for the bottle of sake Tenpou has brought. “I invited the others,” he says. “For our yakiniku party in the Lower World.”

Tenpou’s eyes widen momentarily, but then he remembers. “Oh yes, there was something like that… what did you tell them when we're going?”

“I checked with our schedule and since tomorrow's a free day, I said tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow, huh… sounds like that's a good day.”

Kenren furrows his eyebrows. “You just have no idea what's gonna happen tomorrow, do you?” But he's not angry, he can never be really angry at Tenpou.

The Marshal scratches the back of his head thoughtfully. “So… who’s going to pay again?”

“You,” Kenren grins. “Don’t you remember? I said we’d forgive you for your selfish action in the Lower World if _you_ treat us for yakiniku.”

Tenpou chuckles quietly. “Yes… I suppose you did say that.”

They remain quiet for a while, just enjoying their sake and watching the cherry blossoms.

“Hey, Kenren… what do you think, will our lives always stay like this?”

“What do you mean?”

“A friend of mine, Konzen Douji—he’s bored to death here and keeps saying his life always was the same every day.”

Kenren takes a moment to think about it. “Hm… nah, I don’t think life can always stay the same if you’re like us.”

“‘Like us?’” Tenpou echoes.

“Yeah. Members of the Heavenly Army.”

Tenpou smiles softly. “Maybe you’re right about that. Especially with a unit like ours, huh…”

“Right.” Kenren pours Tenpou another cup of sake. “Now stop thinking about sad stuff like that.”

“What do you think is sad about it?”

“Well, if you think your life was never going to change… that’s just boring and sad, isn’t it?”

“Hm… that’s probably true.”

 

Kenren lets his forehead touch the tabletop for a moment before lifting it again to grin at Tenpou, pointing at the members of their unit. “Seems like the kids are having fun.”

Tenpou lifts his cup of sake to his lips, nodding slightly. “‘The kids?’ You sound like a proud father, Kenren.”

“Well, isn’t that what we are? Their guardians.”

“You’re certainly not wrong, but please consider that maybe you’re one of these ‘kids’ as well.”

The General laughs quietly. “Of course, mom.”

A smile lifts the corners of Tenpou’s mouth.

“Hey, guys!” Kenren gets up, pointing at him. “Order whatever you want! Our favorite Marshal’s paying, after all!”

The answer he gets is a synchronous “Yeah!” from all of their men, accompanied by the sight of all of them raising their glasses before, he drops back onto his chair.

“See, no need to worry about making up for anything, they’re not angry,” he translates their action with a smirk.

The last small hint of guilt doesn’t vanish from Tenpou’s glance, but he chuckles amusedly. “Yes, I can see that. But you know, actually I’m more worried about my wallet at the moment.”

“Is that so? Well, it was your decision when you ordered us to stay back and nearly got yourself killed. With that I saved your life twice,” Kenren sticks out his tongue. “Though you can wait paying me back for that until I actually need it, if you don’t mind.”

Tenpou nods, humming in agreement. “I get your point, Kenren.”

“That’s good. Not like I wanna die that soon, after all. If it could happen the way I want it, you’d never have to pay me back. Also, the condition is that you don’t risk your own life in order to save mine, because I don’t think that’s what I did the two times I saved you.”

“…I’m still not convinced you actually saved my life when we first met; after all I’m pretty used to passing out like that,” Tenpou mutters thoughtfully.

Kenren rolls his eyes. “Yeah, right. And what about that time when I wrote the report about the mission I saved you in while you were taking a bath? You took hours. And when I called you, your reply sounded super sleepy. Sure I didn’t save you from drowning back then, too?”

In an attempt to refrain from answering, Tenpou takes a sip from his cup of sake. But when he has swallowed, Kenren is still looking at him curiously, so he sighs quietly. “Fine, let’s just say you saved my life twice; are you happy now?”

“Yeah, very much so,” Kenren smiles cheerfully.

 

Tenpou’s face is set in an unusually deep frown as he watches Kenren bandage the deep gash on his left arm.

“Stop looking at me like that. You want me to feel responsible for this, huh?” Kenren mutters, pulling the bandage a tiny bit tighter than necessary.

“You just had to do that, right?” Tenpou mumbles, though his voice doesn't actually sound reproachful.

Kenren sighs. “See, a Marshal isn't the only one allowed to do something stupid on the battlefield.”

“It was dangerous.”

“I know. It's dangerous every damn single time you run out there alone, too. So why can you do it and I can't?”

Tenpou bites his lower lip. “The less people die, the better it is.”

“It's not all about the Army, idiot,” Kenren snorts. “What do I have to do so you forgive me, huh? Kiss it better?”

“ _You're_ an idiot, Kenren.”

“Not a bigger one than you are.” Kenren finishes bandaging the injury and leans back slightly. “Seems like I gotta do all the unit-leading stuff for now.”

The Marshal sighs. “I don't want to be pitied, nor do I see any need for me to stop fulfilling my duties.”

“Is that so? How good that I’m not pitying you, then,” Kenren shrugs and takes out his cigarettes and his lighter. “You want one too?”

After hesitating a moment, Tenpou reaches out to take one of the cigarettes, and Kenren leans in closer to light it for him.

“…why didn’t you stay back with the others, like I ordered you to?”

“Oh, you ordered that?”

“At least I would have ordered it if you hadn’t run off before I could finish,” Tenpou says a little more sharply.

Kenren grins smugly. “Well, so you didn’t order me to stay back, after all. Don’t blame me for not doing something I didn’t know I was supposed to do.”

“But still,” Tenpou insists, taking a deep breath and relaxing a little. “Of course I’m angry because I got injured because of you, which undoubtedly is the case because I had to come and save you, but I’m more curious about why you did it.”

“Well, I wanted to know what’s so great about it, since you always want to do it even though everyone wants to fight together with you,” the General smirks. “You’re right—the less dead people, the better; but if someone’s gonna die out there, does it really matter if it’s me or you?”

“To me, it does.”

“Yeah? Same here, then. I don’t want my Marshal to die, not after I’ve saved your life for so many times. I thought we already had that talk.”

“We did, but it’s not that easy for me to change, you know… I’ve been like this for years, so…” Tenpou’s voice suddenly sounds lighter than before, even though Kenren is pretty sure he’s just forcing himself to sound like this.

He sighs heavily. “Shut up and let me do my job.”

A slight chuckle leaves Tenpou’s lips. “You’re not leaving me any choice, huh?”

“Uhm… nope.”

 

It’s getting dark by the time Tenpou returns from his meeting with Goujun.

They have agreed to meet beneath the cherry trees in front of Tenpou’s building, and the Marshal’s eyes need some time to get used to the dimness. “Kenren?” he then calls out, deciding to not be surprised if Kenren has already gone back inside.

Against his expectations, he gets a reply, “Ah, you finally done?”

“You’re still here,” Tenpou says, half surprised, half relieved.

“Sure. Cherry blossoms are nice to watch at dawn, too. You gonna come up here?” Kenren asks, and finally Tenpou sees his long legs dangling down from one of the trees.

A soft smile on his lips, he walks over to the tree and climbs up, sitting down on a branch next to the one Kenren is sitting on. “I didn’t expect you to wait for me so long,” he says in an apologizing tone. “You could’ve gone back inside already, I wouldn’t have been angry.”

“Of course. But as I said, I like being out here at dawn, too,” Kenren shrugs, offering Tenpou his bottle of sake. “But, honestly, what made you take so long?”

“Goujun apparently thought he needed to have a serious talk with me.”

“A serious talk? Did you do something wrong?”

“Uhm… theoretically, yes—he wants me to keep you in control,” Tenpou replies and takes a sip of sake from the bottle. “He said I was letting you roam freely too often.”

“Oh? That’s nothing new; doesn’t he understand you’re not gonna obey him, regarding that?”

Thoughtfully, Tenpou puts the bottle down. “But he might be right this time. Of course I have ulterior motives when I’m not restraining you, and you know that, and I’m sure he does too—but even if we want to stir up the higher-ups, we shouldn’t overdo it.”

For a moment, Kenren just stares at him silently. Then he shrugs again, taking another sip from his bottle. “Whatever you say. You’re the Marshal, after all. Wouldn’t make any sense if we just got suspended from work, right?”

“I see you understand my point.” Tenpou smiles softly.

“’course I do, I’m not stupid, y’know. But since we’re at it, let’s do something they aren’t expecting before we tone it down,” the General suggests with a smirk. “Might be something you’re not expecting, either.”

The Marshal tilts his head to the side slightly, questioningly. “What are you talking about?”

“This.” Kenren puts the bottle of sake aside, leans in, and kisses Tenpou.


End file.
